Welcome to the Vaughan Williams Foundation – one of the foremost sources of funding for recent and contemporary music in the UK
The Vaughan Williams Foundation is a new grant-giving charity which upholds the values and vision of the celebrated composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Our principal aims are to honour RVW’s desire to support his fellow composers, and to help make his own work widely accessible to the general public.
VWF was founded in 2022, 150 years after the composer’s birth, and brings together the two charities originally set up by Ralph (RVW Trust) and Ursula (Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust).
Funding
VWF supports the work of British/Irish composers from the last 100 years, as well as projects which further the knowledge and understanding of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Applications for funding are now open. Ensembles, organisations and individuals are invited to apply.
Applications are also open for the Foundation’s £6,000 annual Vaughan Williams Bursaries for postgraduate composition students.
RVW150
12 October 2022 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the launch of this Foundation and #RVW150 celebrations continued into the summer of 2023.
Find out more about the composer and explore some of the projects which happened in the anniversary year
READ THE LATEST
THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Featured Letter
Get to know the man and his music
RVW’s wide-ranging correspondence – with family, pupils, fellow composers, conductors and performers – paints an intriguing portrait of the man, as well as providing fascinating insights into his major preoccupations: musical, personal and political.
Our searchable database includes over 5000 annotated transcriptions of his correspondence all available to read online.
Letter of the Day
Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Roy Douglas
Letter No.: VWL2565
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.
31st. December 26, 1952.
Dear Roy
I am so sorry I did not explain myself. The concert is the Philharmonic on January 21st., where they are doing the first London performance of S.A.1 I am sorry you cannot come. I wonder if it would be possible for you to come to the rehearsal? Let me know so that I can get you a rehearsal ticket if you can. I think you will be very useful there – but probably you are rehearsing for your play that morning.
The other day, March 14th., is the “St. Matthew” Passion in Dorking Halls.
I think you are quite right about the horns.
Yrs
RVW
Good wishes for the New Year
1. Sinfonia Antartica.